DGA Monthly

J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 5 I 5 3 Membership Screenings Q&As listed in alphabetical order by Director. See more detailed descriptions, additional photos & podcasts online at www.dga.org. DGA Screenings Q&As Two young women find themselves ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse when they knock on the door of a sadist in Directors Scott Beck & Bryan Woods' psychological horror, Heretic. During a Q&A moderated by Director Michael Mohan, Beck & Woods discussed the making of the film and Woods revealed how he and Beck worked with the film's star, Hugh Grant, during the preproduction process. "Hugh would write us these emails that would like be pages. There would be like an essay about something [his character] Reed did or thought about, asking questions about some of the references they're making, historical context. We'd write him an essay back and that was really helpful for our process because one of the tricky things about having two filmmakers is that when an actor like Hugh asks a deep question in person, our brains can kind of mind meld, but not really, so we're kind of answering in real time before we've had a chance to discuss. It was so helpful, Hugh's process, because we'd receive an email and then talk about it like 'I kind of saw it like this,' and it gave us a chance to get on the same page about things as opposed to kind of BSing our way through it and pretending we know exactly what he's asking about." Scott Beck & Bryan Woods discuss Heretic photo by Elisa Haber Director Jon M. Chu's musical fantasy, Wicked, chronicles the unlikely friendship of Elphaba, a young woman misunderstood because of her green skin, and Glinda, a popular girl, as they both study at Shiz University in the Land of Oz. But following an encounter with the Wizard of Oz, their relationship reaches a crossroad as their lives begin to take very different paths. Chu discussed the making of the film during Q&As moderated by Directors Lee Daniels in Los Angeles and Shawn Levy in New York. During the Los Angeles conversation, he shared how he created the setting for the film. "I really wanted to make Oz touchable, feelable, so, we built Oz. We built the Emerald City. We built Munchkin Land. We built a 60-ton train that actually goes on the road. We planted 9 million tulips. These things were physical because it put our actors into a space where they could react in a raw, true way." He also spoke about his intention with the film. "We wanted to continue that tradition of grand cinema. I remember sitting in the cinema in the dark as a kid and being taken away. I knew the one thing we wanted to do was whisk people away on a sweeping journey to another land and remind people what it felt like." Jon M. Chu discusses Wicked photo by Xxx Xxxxx photo by Elisa Haber photo by Marcie Revens Photos: Director Jon M. Chu with moderators Lee Daniels in Los Angeles on November 9 and Shawn Levy in New York on November 16. After the Pope dies, a cardinal finds himself embroiled in intrigue in Director Edward Berger's conspiracy thriller, Conclave. Berger discussed the making of the film during a Q&As moderated by Directors Jay Roach in Los Angeles and Bennett Miller in New York. During the Los Angeles conversation, he spoke about how he shot the film in the famed Sistine Chapel and other iconic locations in Rome. "We really tried to be thoughtful of where to put the camera. We spent a really long time location scouting because it wasn't easy to find all these bits. We shot all over Rome in many different places. The Catholic architecture tries to make you feel small by being very vast and you're this tiny, insignificant person, so obviously that had to be a part of it. But the story is so much told through [Conclave star] Ralph's [Fiennes] eyes and ears and so it always felt whenever we moved the camera to a new spot it had a real purpose to move. Every cut needed to have a real purpose. So, it just evolved naturally. I did about eight weeks of shot listing with the cinematographer and storyboarding the scenes in the Sistine Chapel because I was afraid they would become repetitive." Edward Berger discusses Conclave photo by Xxx Xxxxx photo by Shane Karns photo by Marcie Revens Photos: Director Edward Berger with moderators Jay Roach in Los Angeles on November 17 and Bennett Miller in New York on November 10. Photo: Directors Scott Beck (center) & Bryan Woods (right) discuss the making of Heretic with Director Michael Mohan (moderator) in Los Angeles on November 24.

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